SAN MATEO — Hundreds of explosives-storage facilities exist across the country, but oversight and security at them vary widely, according to a report commissioned by a local congressman.

The study, by the federal Government Accountability Office, comes in response to the theft last year of some 200 pounds of explosives from a secluded bunker in unincorporated San Mateo County. State and local law-enforcement caches — such as the county’s — are not are subject to required inspections as are private facilities, and have from minimal to extensive safeguards to prevent break-ins, the report said.

Congressman Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, who called for the study, said it “boggles the mind” that passengers would be forced to take off their shoes in line at the airport, yet there wouldn’t be more scrutiny of public explosives caches.

“These are serious matters. These are not slight traffic viola- tions,” Lantos said at a hearing onthe report held Monday. “These cases provide the basis for a terrorist attack in the United States.

“The terrorists could care less whether the explosives came from a public or private facility.”

Between January 2002 and February 2005, ATF received nine reports of thefts or missing explosives from state and local caches, compared with 205 total from all facilities, said Laurie Ekstrand, director of the GAO’s Homeland Security and Justice Team. Of those nine, one did not appear in ATF’s national database for stolen or missing explosives.

Security measures at 18 explosives-storage facilities that GAO representatives audited ranged from locked gates and electronic monitoring to a facility that sat out in the open, allowing anyone to drive up to it, Ekstrand said. Another was located in the basement of a municipal building.

The report recommends, among other things, that the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) clarify regulations to ensure that state and local agencies know their duties when it comes to reporting stolen explosives.

Louis Raden, assistant director of ATF’s Enforcement Programs and Services Division, said his agency has limited control over public and state facilities because of the way the law is written.

Under federal law, ATF can regulate and inspect private facilities, but can only set rules for how public agencies should store their explosives.

“State and governmental entities are required to comply with the federal storage regulations, but there is no mechanism in place to ensure this compliance,” Raden said.

At the time of the July 2004 break-in, San Mateo County’s facility near Crystal Springs reservoir had no video camera and an alarm system that hadn’t been functioning properly for 10 years. Thieves used a bolt cutter to cut the locks off the gates of the facility, then returned days later with a blowtorch to finish the job.

Virtually all of the explosives, including TNT and C4 grenades, were recovered a short time later and four men were indicted for the thefts.

Since the 2004 incident, the county has used funds from the Department of Homeland Security to hire three more bomb technicians and for management and oversight training, said Sheriff Don Horsley. With the location of the old bunker compromised, the county has been without a space to store explosives as evidence or for training, and has been working with Bay Area law enforcement agencies to help fill the void.

Monday’s was the second hearing on the issue; another is planned for next spring.

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